Numerous businesses use recorded announcements to convey information to their customers via a communications network. The use of recorded announcements is widespread and rapidly growing in today's global economy. For example, most, if not all, telecommunication companies use hundreds of recorded announcements to notify callers of call status, service status, available services, employment opportunities, account balances and the like. Similarly, banking services use thousands of recorded announcements to inform customers of, for example, account status, lending opportunities, payment options, credit rates, billings and various other services. Most establishments use recorded announcements to route calls, receive automated purchase information, generate sales, perform sales promotions and provide other automated customer services. Polling services use recorded announcements to respond to calls, issue questions to callers and generate responses to data input by callers. Hospitals, governmental agencies and other large entities often employ recorded announcements both internally and externally for applications with callers. As yet another example, many airline services use hundreds of recorded announcements to inform passengers of flight status, ticket information and the like. The travel services industry is another business sector that utilizes systems with recorded announcements. Most travel agencies, car rental services, hotels and the like handle transactions with recorded announcements. Many companies use “in-house” communication systems with “pick up” phones that play announcements when a user picks up the telephone (e.g., a car rental agency, hotel or the like, with a “pick up” telephone at a front desk or reception counter).
Most telecommunication systems employ one or more central offices (CO) on a network. Typically, each CO has recorded announcement equipment coupled to a switch network via a series of trunks. A trigger somewhere in the network is used to identify which recorded announcement(s) is (are) required for a communication on the network. The switch network routes incoming calls to a trunk. Each trunk is associated with one or more recorded announcements on the recorded announcement equipment. With existing systems and methods, recorded announcements are loaded on the recorded announcement equipment according to the needs of each central office. In most cases, at least a portion of the announcements that are available at one central office is common to two or more central offices on a network. For example, the announcements for a particular central office may be common to all of the telephone subscribers serviced on a local access transport area (LATA).
Currently, when new recorded announcements become available, or existing recorded announcements require maintenance and the like, work assignments must be made to update announcements in one or more of the central offices that use those announcements. When this occurs, using known systems, an announcement tape must be loaded in each central office. This arrangement is often time consuming and costly. For example, maintaining recorded announcements at numerous locations imposes significant labor efforts to assign and maintain announcements in each central office.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture of known systems. In this example, subscribers of a telephone service provider access specific recorded announcements coupled to trunks in a central office 100. For example, caller 101 dials a code, e.g., “1+” or “800”, that causes a trigger in hub 110 or alternatively in the central office 100, to initiate a query for a recorded announcement from recorded announcement equipment 150. Similarly, another caller 102 dials a defined service number and hub 110, recognizing this number, routes the call to an automated attendant function at central office 100. Finally, based on a sudden service outage for cellular calls in a certain region, cellular telephone caller 103 is identified as a cellular call by the network and routed to central office 100 via mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) 120 to receive service information, i.e., recorded announcements concerning the sudden service outage.
Thus, users (e.g., 101, 102, 103 . . . n) are connected to a central office 100 through a router 110, a distributing frame 115 and into a switch network 130. In this example, user 101 has dialed a number that requires a recorded announcement from the central office 100. A processor (not shown) recognizes that a user 101 requires a recorded announcement and connects the line through the switch network 130 to a trunk circuit 140 that is in communication with recorded announcement equipment 150. In most arrangements, the recorded announcement equipment is coupled directly to the switch. Typically, this architecture is repeated in one or more central offices throughout a network. Of course, the number and sizes of the central offices will vary, depending upon the size of the overall system, and other considerations.
Under most current situations, recorded announcements are loaded on recorded announcement equipment 150 by the use of a standard conventional audiocassette tapes 153. In some instances, recorded announcements are loaded onto, for example, a lap top personal computer 157 and then loaded onto recorded announcement equipment 150 via a cable 155.
Typically, for each recorded announcement there is an assigned trunk, or a path, to switch network 130. This configuration varies somewhat from one switch type to another. However, in the simplest terms, each announcement requires a trunk or path from the recorded announcement equipment 150 to the switch network 130. In switching systems such as the Lucent 1AESS™ and 5ESS™ switches, for example, most of the recorded announcement equipment interfaces with the switch network via an analog trunk circuit. The recorded announcement equipment in these switching systems has a channel for each announcement. This means that each channel is wired to a trunk circuit that also connects to the switch network. Accordingly, when an announcement must be added or changed at a central office, it is first loaded on the recorded announcement equipment 150 and then a trunk is wired into the switch network. The latest vintage of recorded announcement equipment that is used in 5ESS™ switching systems uses a 24-channel T-carrier interface. In this arrangement, all 24 channels of each recorded announcement unit are wired to a T-carrier system that then connects to the switch network. No additional wiring of channels is needed at the time when announcements are added or changed. However, these systems require loading of the announcements and occasional maintenance.
Typically in each central office, or perhaps in one location for a group of central offices, sets of tapes are maintained so that if for some reason one or more of the announcements becomes corrupted, announcements can be re-recorded from the tape(s) onto the recording announcement equipment 150. Similarly, when new services are added that involve recorded announcements, new tapes are made and delivered to the respective central offices so that they can be loaded onto the appropriate equipment at those central offices.
The recorded announcement equipment in Nortel Networks DMS™ and Siemens EWSD™ switching systems is similar to the latest vintage in 5ESS™ systems in that the equipment connects to the switching network via a multi-channel link. No additional wiring is needed in the DMS™ and EWSD™ switching systems after the equipment is installed. However, these systems also require loading of the announcements and occasional maintenance.
Accordingly, using known systems, inventories of recorded announcements must be maintained for one or more central offices. Furthermore, care must be maintained to ensure consistency of the recorded announcements at all central offices. Another problem is that it is difficult to match recording levels across multiple devices at multiple central offices.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and a method for requesting, provisioning and maintaining recorded announcements and related equipment for one or more central offices.